Well, that was a blast. Thanks for all your correspondence (Bobby Dunnett puts in a late Star Wars shout for Mile “Jedi” Jedinak), and stay safe. I leave you with a European roundup, and some live coverage of this evening’s big one. Toodleoo
Fulham 1-2 Crystal Palace, Football League and more – as it happened
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Live feed
Key events
Our hot-off-the-press match report from Craven Cottage is in. Feast your eyes on it, here:
Carl Whinder with the final word on the whole Star Wars thing: “Dusan Tadic has the air of a B-list rebel fighter pilot about it.”
And Barry Edwards with the final word on Spitfiregate: “I think Hartlepool have pictured this Spitfire.”
Final scores
Championship
Watford 1-1 Bournemouth1
Bristol City 1-1 Swansea City
Cardiff City 1-1 Middlesbrough
Coventry City 0-4 Blackburn Rovers
Huddersfield Town 1-2 Preston North End
Millwall 1-1 Barnsley
Norwich City 2-1 Wycombe Wanderers
Queens Park Rangers 0-0 Birmingham City
Reading 3-0 Rotherham United
Sheffield Wednesday 0-1 Luton Town
Stoke City 3-2 Brentford
League One
Gillingham 0-2 Fleetwood Town2
Blackpool 1-0 Milton Keynes Dons
Burton Albion 1-1 Wimbledon
Doncaster Rovers 1-2 Crewe Alexandra
Hull City 1-2 Peterborough United
Lincoln City 1-0 Ipswich Town
Northampton Town 0-2 Charlton Athletic
Shrewsbury Town 1-2 Rochdale
Sunderland 1-3 Portsmouth
Wigan Athletic 1-1 Plymouth Argyle
League Two
Exeter City 3-1 Scunthorpe United
Barrow 2-2 Walsall
Bradford City 0-3 Newport County
Cambridge United 1-1 Bolton Wanderers
Cheltenham Town 0-0 Mansfield Town
Colchester United 2-1 Harrogate Town
Grimsby Town 1-1 Carlisle United
Morecambe 1-2 Forest Green Rovers
Oldham Athletic 1-2 Port Vale
Salford City 1-1 Crawley Town
Stevenage 0-2 Leyton Orient
Tranmere Rovers 2-0 Southend United
Bonus Eredivisie scoreline
Venlo 0-12 (TWELVE) Ajax – and there’s still 10 minutes left!
Full-time: Fulham 1-2 Crystal Palace
Fulham’s season is very quickly turning into a survival battle. Full-time whistles are sounding across the country – final scores to follow shortly – and big news from the Essex Senior League:
Full time: Saffron Walden 0-1 Walthamstow
— Walthamstow Football Club (@walthamstowfc) October 24, 2020
Big three points on the road for Stow!
Incredibly tight game, it took a Dwade James panenka to take the three points!
Star Wars:
@A_Hess Always thought Denmark/Midtjylland’s Pione Sisto is pretty Star Wars-sounding. Specifically, a Jedi with limited screen time in the prequels but who comes into his own in the cartoons.
— Dan Carney (@AstronautHeart) October 24, 2020
@A_Hess Wot no John Obi Mikel?
— Si Williams (@Si_Williams) October 24, 2020
Our Scotland correspondent writes: “As predicted at kick-off, it finished 0-0 at Perth between St. Johnstone and Dundee United. All the goals at Motherwell, where it finished 4-0 to the home side against Ross County, and in Dumfries, where it was Queen of the South 2-5 Raith Rovers. Special mention also to Cowdenbeath, who scored their first goal of the season, as their 10 men held on to beat Edinburgh City 1-0.”
Goal! Fulham 1-2 Crystal Palace (Cairney 90)
A very nice probably-consolation goal for Fulham as the gifted midfielder rattles home from range. And Norwich look to have nicked the win at the death after Mario Vrancic curls home a great free-kick, up and over the wall from the very edge of the box. Poor Wycombe…
Harvey Elliot gets his second for a rampant Blackburn. And it’s game on at Stoke as the hosts, home and hosed at 3-0 up, gift Brentford possession with a woeful backpass and Marcus Forss slots home. That’s 3-2!
Red card for Aboubakar Kamara
Fulham’s misery is complete as Aboubakar Kamara sees red for rakes his studs down the heel of Ebere Eze, albeit completely by accident. The inherent drama of the moment is, as is now customary, killed dead by the monotonous VAR routine, which obliges the referee to toddle tediously to the sideline and watch a minute or so of super slo-mo replays before producing the card.
Yakou Meite scissor-kicks Reading into a 2-0 lead, Nakhi Wells penalty-kicks Bristol City level, and Sunderland’s Luke O’Nien illegally-kicks his way to a second booking. John Marquis buries the resultant penalty to make it 3-1 Pompey.
Cathal Elliott makes us realise we were missing the bleedin’ obvious: “Aaron Wan-Bissaka. Surely the most Star Wars name ever donned by a footballer.”
Neil Brown write in to cover various bases: “Sadio Mane sounds like a Star Wars name. So does Mesut Ozil (but you asked for current footballers - honk!). Re commemorative shirts: Maybe I’m missing the accuracy argument about shoddily portraying Spitfires (and Blackadder Goes Forth tributes) on a replica football shirt. But this seems like a cash-grab by clubs, when they need money, directed at nationalists. Good for them!”
Not long now until this weekend’s big’un: Olly v Frank, the DNA Derby, Amateurs Hour, El Hegetstheclubo. Or simply Manchester United v Chelsea. Scott Murray has all the build-up:
A couple of Champo levellers: Will Keane for Wigan against Plymouth and Sheyi Ojo for Cardiff against Boro. One-all both. And Marcus Forss belts home a consolation goal – for now – for Brentford art Stoke.
A couple of nominations for Star Wars names: Marvelous Nakamba and Vlad Chiriches. I endorse the latter. But Jairo Riedewald is still a long way clear, for me.
Liverpool loanee and keen top-knot practitioner Harvey Elliott slots coolly home to make it 3-0 for Blackburn, and Blackpool’s Sullay Kaikai breaks the deadlock against MK Done.
Goal! Fulham 0-2 Crystal Palace (Zaha 64)
Wilfried Zaha gets the goal he deserves. Andros Townsend picks out Michy Batshuayi, and his dangerous ball across the face of goal is tapped in by Zaha at full stretch. His momentum takes him into the post – ouch. But that, you’d think, is that.
Ronald Anderson writes with some good-god-yet-more-Spitfire-nerdery! “To me the biggest anachronism is the four blade propeller. BOB Spitfires had a three blade prop. Four blades came in with later more powerful engines.”
A flat start to the second half at Craven Cottage. I’m having salmon for dinner, marinating as we speak in chilli, ginger, garlic and lime juice. But what should I have it with?
Back in football, James “pub quiz” Vaughn has put Tranmere 2-0 up against Southend and two Alan Browne goals in three second-half minutes have given Preston lead at Huddersfield, the second after a goalkeeping blunder. Jon Stead (!) pegs one back for Harrogate at Colchester. And Stoke are home and dry against Brentford, a classy curler from Tyrese Campbell. Big Kev would have liked that.
And David Sullivan lightens the tone: “Is there a more ‘Star Wars character’-sounding name in football than Jairo Riedewald?” Clearly a superb question. Any more suggestions?
Peter Jones continues – and complicates – our history lesson! “As another Spitfire nerd, I should suggest that the camouflage scheme was the one used later than the Battle of Britain. The significance was that the BOB scheme of green and earth was optimised for battle over land while the later grey and green scheme was useful over water as the RAF went onto the offensive. The cannon armament, together with the camouflage scheme and the stylised exhausts suggests to me an anachronistic Mark IX.”
Swansea go ahead at Bristol City as Jamal Lowe rattles a great left-foot shot into the roof of the net, while a second Adam Armstrong goal doubles Blackburn’s lead at Coventry, thrashing home when clean through for his eighth of the season. And in-form Zach Dearnley pegs one back for Oldham against Port Vale.
And we’re back under way across the country. No messing around from James McKeown, who notches an early own-goal to put Carlisle level at Grimsby.
Some half-time philosophising from Barry Edwards: “Aren’t players with beards or hairy barnets like Riedewald worried that their hair is going to be given offside by VAR?”
Bob Lewandowski has just completed a perfect hat-trick for Bayern Munich, who lead Frankfurt 3-0. Just the 10 league goals in four games for him this season, that’s all.
Your Scotland update comes from Simon McMahon: “After the big build-up, the St. Johnstone v Dundee United game is, predictably, the only one in the SPL without a goal at half-time. Elsewhere it’s Kilmarnock 0-1 Hibs and Motherwell 1-0 Ross County. In the Scottish Championship Raith Rovers are now 3-1 up at Queen of the South, and it’s Alloa 0-1 Dunfermline 1, and Inverness 0-0 Ayr.”
Half-times all round.
Championship
Bristol City 0-0 Swansea
Cardiff 0-1 Middlesbrough
Coventry 0-1 Blackburn
Huddersfield 1-0 Preston
Millwall 1-1 Barnsley
Norwich 1-1 Wycombe
QPR 0-0 Birmingham
Reading 1-0 Rotherham
Sheff Wed 0-0 Luton
Stoke 2-0 Brentford
League One
Gillingham 0-2 Fleetwood
Blackpool 0-0 Dons
Burton 0-0 Wimbledon
Doncaster 1-1 Crewe
Hull 1-0 Peterborough
Lincoln City 0-0 Ipswich
Northampton 0-0 Charlton
Shrewsbury 1-2 Rochdale
Sunderland 1-2 Portsmouth
Wigan 0-0 Plymouth
League Two
Barrow 1-1 Walsall
Bradford 0-2 Newport
Cambridge 0-0 Bolton
Cheltenham 0-0 Mansfield
Colchester 0-0 Harrogate
Grimsby 1-0 Carlisle
Morecambe 1-0 Forest Green
Oldham 0-2 Port Vale
Salford 0-0 Crawley
Stevenage 0-0 Leyton Orient
Tranmere 1-0 Southend
The ever-watchable Wilfried Zaha is putting in one of his best ever displays for Palace today – no exaggeration. His side look comfortable as Luka Milivojevic send a free-kick over the wall in the last act of the half. Jake Cooper heads in an immediate equaliser for Millwall.
Reading are leading Rotherham: Yakou Meite slots home after a delightful shimmy and cross from Ovie Ejaria, Mitchell Clark puts Port Vale two up at Oldham, and a screamer of a volley from Alex Mowatt gives Barnsley the lead at Millwall.
Meanwhile, Doncaster Rovers join the respectapalooza – yours for £27.99:
LIMITED EDITION | Introducing the 2020 limited edition poppy remembrance t-shirt! Available now in-store & online #drfc https://t.co/CZfs64DC3E pic.twitter.com/irQqltrsF5
— Doncaster Rovers FC (@drfc_official) October 23, 2020
James McClean doubles Stoke’s lead against Brentford with a jammy deflected cross and Mallik Wilks puts Hull ahead against Peterborough, a lovely guided finish.
A fast start at the Keepmoat, where Doncaster host Crewe – Josh Sims replying to Charlie Kirk to make it one apiece.
Unsurprisingly Ademola Lookman is Fulham’s brightest attacking hope against Palace. He’s been a livewire throughout the opening stages and now he scurries into the box and hits the inside of the post, the ball bouncing out to Mitrovic in front of goal, who can’t react quickly enough and can only shank his shot over. Great chance!
More aeronautical history, courtesy of Mammillaria Hahniana: “A plane spotter writes: The Spitfire is probably a cannon armed MK 1B. These did participate in the Battle of Britain although most Spits were browning armed MK1A version.”
John Marquis puts Portsmouth 2-1 up at Sunderland after some pitiful stuff from the hosts, who gift their opponents the ball on the edge of the box.
Fulham look in trouble against Palace, who look dangerous every time they get into their hosts’ half: Zaha forces a good save from a tight angle before heading a decent chance wide after good work from Townsend.
Shout out to Simon McMahon, who emails in with the following: “Hi Alex. Game of the day in Scotland comes from Perth, where visitors Dundee United start with Shankland, McNulty and Clark in attack. St. Johnstone’s Stevie May is in good form recently, so expect goals at McDiarmid Park. None so far, though. Elsewhere in the SPL, Kilmarnock host Hibs and Motherwell welcome Ross County. In the Scottish Championship, Hearts struggled to a 1-0 win at Arbroath last night, and today it’s Inverness v Ayr, and it’s already Queen of the South 1-2 Raith Rovers. Peterhead v Cove Rangers and Partick v Airdrie are the top games in Scottish League One, and in Scottish League Two, Queens Park have taken an early lead at home to Albion, and it’s Edinburgh City 0-0 Cowdenbeath.”
As a wise man once said, “Be careful, because there’s always someone ready to step into your shoes … and do your job better … than you … do it.”
And taking their lead from the Football League, Barcelona and Real Madrid have already traded a pair of goals! More here:
An slew of early goals in the Championship: Huddersfield are beating Preston thanks to Frazier Campbell, Adam Armstong gives Blackburn the lead from the spot against Coventry, who have had Michael Rose sent off, the evergreen Steven Fletcher has put Stoke ahead against Brentford, and Wycombe have equalise, Scott Kashket punishing a statuesque Norwich defence!
In League One,, Sunderland and Pompey are already a goal a piece. And just two goals in League Two: Newport and Port Vale are beating Bradford and Oldham respectively.
Goal! Fulham 0-1 Crystal Palace (Riedewald 8)
A long ball frees Wilfried Zaha, who beats Ola Aina with some great skill and gets a shot away from close range. Areola saves but Zaha latches on to the rebound, waits a beat, and plays in Jaïro Riedewald, who fires home. Your move, Scotty Parker.
Some thought’s on Hartlepool’s shirt:
Mary Waltz says: “In these dark days it never hurts to see a reminder of what is possible, although it is depressing to look at who we have in charge of our affairs and compare. Love the look of the Spitfire, a lovely reminder of what is possible, genius design combined with human bravery.”
A good pint … or is it? Adam Griffiths interjects: “Why haven’t Hartlepool used a picture of the Spitfire used in the Battle of Britain (the Mk 1)? Unless my ageing eyes deceive me, that’s the Mk 2 (introduced in 1941) adorning the shirts. I should probably get out more.”
And JR in Illinois rightly points out that “it’s a good thing for all involved that James McClean isn’t at Hartlepool”.
Meanwhile, in football, Teemu Pukki has put Norwich ahead and set Wycombe on track for a seventh defeat in seven.
In League One, Fleetwood have won 2-0 at 10-man Gillingham to leapfrog their opponents into 11th, and in the division below Exeter have won 3-1 against Scunthorpe, who are in trouble. Meanwhile, our man Jonathan Liew was at the London Stadium to witness Manchester City salvage an unconvincing draw against David Moyes’ formidable West Ham. Here’s his take on all that:
News reaches me that there is a game being played in Spain this afternoon. No more info as yet, but Barry Glendenning’s live blog will keep you informed:
By the way, I trust we have all seen Hartlepool’s commemorative Battle of Britain shirt? Thoughts?
We are delighted to announce this years Remembrance Day shirt
— Hartlepool United FC (@Official_HUFC) October 22, 2020
This year will focus on the 80 year anniversary of the Battle of Britain as we show our gratitude to all those who gave their lives.
You can pre order now and here are all the details: https://t.co/da3f52MRj5
In the Championship’s early kick-off, Watford’s attempt to go level on points with top-of-the-table Reading was going swimmingly … right up until the 95th minute, when Chris Mepham volleyed home to ensure Bournemouth left Vicarage Road with a 1-1 draw. Which means Reading could go four clear with a win over ailing Rotherham.
Talking of Fulham v Crystal Palace (and who isn’t?), we all of course remember Pajtim Kasami’s ludicrous wonderstrike in that fixtures a few years back. The Guardian’s own Will Unwin spoke to the man himself about the goal earlier this year:
What’s the opposite of a bogey team? (Handkerchief team?) Whatever it is, that’s what West Ham are to Manchester City, who tend to wallop the Hammers with disdainful ease every time they meet. Not so today, though – it’s currently 1-1 at the London Stadium with 10 miunutes left. Follow it with Scott Murray here:
Preamble
Gather round! We’re in for another full-on Saturday afternoon of bizarro Covid-era football, with the sole top-flight kick-off offering chance for Fulham to generate some momentum in a London derby. They play host to Crystal Palace, and will go into a winnable game buoyed by the explosive debut of Ademola Lookman last week. Scott Parker’s side are far from the write-offs many would have you believe – but they will be keenly aware this is a good a chance as they’ll get to chalk up some vital points.
In the Championship, unbeaten Reading look to put some daylight between themselves and in-form Watford with the visit of Rotherham, while Barnsley and Wycombe both continue their search for a first win – the latter the only side in the country to have lost six from six, and yet still not bottom of the league. Maybe it’s their year.
For League One, a single top-of-the-table clash is not enough: this afternoon the top four play each other, Peterborough travelling to the KCom Stadium to face Hull and Ipswich going to Lincoln – as well as two of the bottom three facing off as Blackpool host MK Dons.
And in League Two, Southend, Barrow and Mansfield are all seeking an inaugural victory, while table-topping Cambridge United look to continue their momentum with the visit of Bolton.
All that – plus updates from Scotland, Europe and maybe even beyond. Strap in.